Book of Common Prayer

3 O you Galatians, have you no sense at all? Who has fooled you? You knew, just as if you had seen him with your own eyes, that Jesus Christ was killed on a cross.

² Here is one thing I want to ask you. You received the Holy Spirit. Was that because you obeyed the law [given to the Jews by Moses]? No, it was because you heard God's word and believed it.

³ Have you no sense at all? You began living your new life by the power of the Spirit. And are you now trying to finish living it by your own power [to keep the law]?

⁴ So many things happened to you. Was it all for nothing? Surely it was not for nothing.

⁵ God gives you the Spirit. He does wonderful works among you. Does he do this because you obey the law? No, he does it because you heard the word of God and believed it.

⁶ So it was with Abraham. The holy writings say `He believed God, and that was why God called him a good man.'

⁷ You see then, the people who believe God are children of Abraham.

⁸ The holy writings say that he will put people right with himself if they believe him, even those who are not Jews. It was written down before God did it. The holy writings told the good news to Abraham ahead of time. It said, `God will make you a blessing to all nations and people.'

⁹ Abraham believed God and was blessed. And so those who believe God are blessed too, along with him.

¹⁰ A curse is on all people who are trying to become good by obeying the law. The holy writings say, `Everyone is cursed who does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the law and do it.'

¹¹ Now, you can see this. No man is called a good man by God because he obeys the law. The holy writings say, `Those who are right with God shall live by faith.'

¹² The law does not ask people to believe. It says, `He who obeys the laws will live because of them.'

¹³ Christ has saved us from the curse which the law put on us. He took the curse on himself. It should have been on us. The holy writings say, `A curse be on everyone who hangs on a tree!'

¹⁴ Christ Jesus did this so that those who are not Jews will have the blessing which Abraham had. He did this so that when we believe, we will receive the Spirit who was promised to us.

³⁰ The apostles came back to Jesus. They told him all they had done and taught.

³¹ Jesus said to them, `Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while.' Many people were coming and going. They could not even eat.

³² So they went away in a boat to a lonely place by themselves.

³³ The people saw them going. Many people knew them. The people ran from all the towns and got there ahead of them.

³⁴ When the boat got there, Jesus saw the many people. He was very sorry for them because they were like sheep with no one to care for them. He began to teach them many things.

³⁵ When it was late in the day, his disciples came to him. They said, `This is a lonely place and the time is late.

³⁶ Send these people away to farms and villages to buy food for themselves. They have nothing to eat.'

³⁷ Jesus said, `You give them food to eat.' They said, `Shall we go and buy a lot of bread and give them to eat?'

³⁸ He said, `Go and see how much bread you have.' When they knew, they told him, `We have five loaves of bread and two fish.'

³⁹ Jesus told the disciples to make all the people sit on the green grass in groups.

⁴⁰ The people sat down in groups. Some groups were a hundred people and some were fifty people.

⁴¹ Jesus took the five loaves of bread and the two fish. He looked up to heaven and thanked God for them. Then he broke them in pieces. He gave them to the disciples to give to the people. Then he divided the two fish among them all.

⁴² They all ate and had enough.

⁴³ Then they gathered twelve baskets full of pieces that were left.

⁴⁴ The number of men who ate was about five thousand.

⁴⁵ Then Jesus said to the disciples, `You get into the boat right away and go over to Bethsaida. I will send the people away.'

⁴⁶ When he had sent the people away, he went up on the hill to talk with God.